OREANDA-NEWS. September 13, 2011. One of the most trusted university rankings available - QS World University Rankings - has announced the fresh list of top 5% universities in the world. According to newest data, UT has risen a whole 50 positions in ranking. Rankings by subject place UT in Life Sciences & Medicine on the impressive 381st place, reported the press-centre of UT.

Third year in a row has Univerity of Tartu qualified to the list of top 5% most prestigeous universities in the world. In 2011 QS has had over 2000 world's best universities evaluated, placing UT on position 501–550 which is 50 places higher score than last year. In Life Sciences and Medicine UT qualifies as 381st. We also scored high on Academic Reputation and Employer Status.

According to UT Rector prof Alar Karis the university was proud and honored to be first included to the prestigeous chart in 2009 as the first university in Estonia. Since then, rector added, UT's goal has been consistantly to achieve higher scores on the list. "It hasn't been a purpose in itself but it's certainly pleasurable to know that our high standard science and teaching bring us recognition internationally as well as in Estonia," said Karis.

The QS World University Rankings currently considers over 2,000 and evaluates over 700 best universities in the world, ranking the top 400. Six indicators are drawn together to form an international ranking of universities: academic reputation, employer status, citations per faculty, faculty student ratio, proportion of international students and proportion of international faculty. In addition, rankings in five broad faculty areas are produced: Arts & Humanities, Engineering & Technology, Life Sciences & Medicine, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences & Management. 2011 ranking had a record response level to the academic and employer surveys: as many as 33 000 academics and 16 000 employees gave their opinions.

The leader of 2011/2012 chart for the second year in a row is University of Cambridge, followed by Harvard University and Massachusettes Institute of Technology. On 4th position we find Yale University and on 5th University of Oxford. Besides University of Tartu the only one from the Baltics who made it to the rankings is University of Vilnius (Lithuania).

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